Just as Silvio Berlusconi's bid to return to power appears to be losing momentum, a new court case could see yet another parade of young women testify on the former prime minister's private life.

Judges in Bari, Italy, are deciding whether to pursue Giampaolo Tarantini, a local businessman accused of procuring prostitutes for Berlusconi. A pre-trial hearing has been scheduled for 8 February, a fortnight before a general election.

A judge has given magistrates an additional six months to investigate whether the former premier paid Tarantini €500,000 to tell investigators he no idea that women he met through the businessman in 2009 were paid escorts.

Should the case go to trial it will follow Berlusconi's current legal battle in Milan, where he is accused of paying an underage prostitute at his so-called Bunga Bunga parties, which he allegedly started throwing after news leaked of the parties he had hosted with Tarantini in Rome.

The Milan trial, at which a procession of wome have recalled their nights with Berlusconi, was delayed on 10 December when the woman at the centre of the allegations, Karima el-Mahroug, missed a court hearing, later claiming she was on holiday in Mexico.

The likely star of a Tarantini trial would be Patrizia D'Addario, who, unlike Mahroug, claims she had sex with Berlusconi and he was aware she was a prostitute. D'Addario, who is among 25 women cited by court documents, has asked to be considered an injured party, and will seek compensation.

Berlusconi has denied ever paying for sex. Discussing D'Addario, his lawyer, Niccolò Ghedini, claimed in 2009 the former prime minister was, at most, the "end user" of the women he entertained.

Tarantini said on Thursday the women he took to Berlusconi's parties "were normal girls" and if they went to bed with the ex-premier "that was their problem". The €500,000 he received from Berlusconi was just a loan from a friend, he added.

The return to the headlines of the Tarantini investigation comes as Berlusconi appeared to reconsider his re-election efforts. In a long and sometimes confusing speech on Wednesday he said he would withdraw from the race if Mario Monti agreed to stand for office at the head a coalition that included his Freedom People party.

Monti, the technocrat prime minister who pledged to quit by the end of the year after Berlusconi withdrew parliamentary support for his government, has declined to state whether he will seek office.

Berlusconi stepped down in November 2011 amid an economic crisis and the growing row over his Bunga Bunga parties. Since then the Freedom People party has been damaged by repeated sleaze allegations which have toppled regional authorities in Lazio and Lombardy, where a fresh scandal was reported on Friday.

Twenty-two regional councillors from the Freedom People and Northern League parties are being investigated over expenses on items including lottery scratch cards, bullets, cigarettes, takeaway pizzas and fireworks.

Nicole Minetti, the Anglo-Italian former showgirl and dental hygienist who was appointed councillor by Berlusconi, is suspected of spending €832 at a Milan hotel and buying an iPad. She is also on trial accused of procuring prostitutes for the Bunga Bunga nights.

Berlusconi, 76, has, apparently, readied himself for another run for office by appearing in public with Francesca Pascale, 27, party activist from Naples.

"She is his girlfriend, everyone knows it. They are beautiful couple [and are] great together," said Mariano Apicella, the guitarist with whom Berlusconi co-wrote and recorded a collection of love songs called True Love.

"I think love has no age," he added. "Even the big stars in Hollywood have relationships with women much younger and no one says anything – why can't Berlusconi?"